The guide to the best wines of the 1973 vintage
Are you looking for a wine from 1973 to mark an important date or celebrate a birthday? La Bouteille Dorée offers you a little practical guide to find your way around these old vintages and to find a bottle from 1973 that will really please its recipient.
Bordeaux 1973
After a beautiful spring that allowed flowering in good conditions, the hot and dry month of August was preceded by a rainy month of July and the rain returned in mid-September. The result was a very large and rather diluted harvest that gave round and fruity wines but not very concentrated and not very suitable for ageing. You have to turn to the great châteaux of the Médoc in Pauillac and Graves (Latour, Haut-Brion) as well as in Saint-Emilion (Cheval Blanc) which at the time were able to carry out a rigorous sorting of the grapes and whose wines still offer beautiful sensations of elegance and complexity. However, they have reached high prices and there are still a few more affordable second wines. There are few wines that can be kept for a long time in Sauternes and Barsac as well.
Burgundy 1973
A beautiful spring and a hot and dry month of June but with regular rains from mid-July until the harvest, the harvest in Burgundy was large and rather diluted. Apart from a few exceptional vintages with very high prices, few white or red wines from Burgundy have survived to this day. Perhaps the great white wines of Meursault and Puligny stand out from the crowd.
Rhône 1973
In the Rhone Valley, too, conditions were difficult. Most of the red wines, to the north at Côte-Rôtie and Hermitage and to the south at Châteauneuf-du-Pape, were enjoyable in their youth but lacked too much concentration to remain pleasant after 40 years.
Champagne 1973
The heavy rains in September caused grey rot and damaged what had been a very promising vintage until then. A huge harvest produced vintage champagnes lacking a bit of concentration and power, and few have survived 40 years in the cellar apart from a few prestigious cuvées from great houses.
Other successes of 1973
Among the great successes of the 1973 wines, we can note:
- Alsace wines : In 1973, the Alsatian vineyards experienced fairly favourable climatic conditions: no frost in spring, no coulure during flowering, little hail during the summer and therefore a perfect state of health of the grapes. In the end, it was the rain that the vines lacked a little. The harvest was abundant and came as a relief after the 2 very small vintages of 1971 and 1972. The high sugar content of the grapes and the low acidity have unquestionably succeeded in the Riesling wines and even more so in the Gewurztraminer.
- The natural sweet red wines of Roussillon, the great wines of Maury and Rivesaltes which offer beautiful taste sensations 40 years later.
Find all the bottles of 1973 currently on stock
Find all the bottles from 1973 currently on sale at La Bouteille Dorée. All these wines from 1973 are in stock in our cellars and can be delivered in 24 hours throughout France and even within the day in Paris and 48 to 72 hours in most european countries. If you are looking for a particular bottle in the 1973 vintage, do not hesitate to contact us at info@labouteilledoree.com or at 01.46.22.29.79.